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Staph

(6,245 posts)
Fri Aug 10, 2018, 04:56 PM Aug 2018

TCM Schedule for Friday, August 10, 2018 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Dorothy Malone

Day Ten of Summer Under the Stars, with Dorothy Malone. Here's the deets...

Dorothy Malone was a film star during Hollywood's Golden Age who was best known for her Oscar-winning performance in Douglas Sirk's "Written on the Wind" (1956). Born in Chicago, Malone and her family moved with her family to Dallas when she was six-months old. Tragedy had struck Malone's family early on when two of her sisters died from complications from polio, so Malone grew up knowing how fleeting life was. She decided quite early to make the most of her existence, and quickly settled on becoming a performer. She began modeling for Neiman Marcus as a teenager and after a brief stint at Southern Methodist University, where she majored in drama, Malone was offered a contract with RKO studios at the age of 18. She appeared in a number of films during her year with RKO, most notably 1943's "Higher and Higher," which also starred Frank Sinatra. After one year, however, RKO decided not to renew Malone's contract. Undeterred, Malone signed a new contract with Warner Bros., and quickly raised her acting profile by appearing in films like "Too Young to Know" (1945) and "Frontier Days" (1945). Her first big break came in 1946 when she appeared alongside Humphrey Bogart in the Director Howard Hawks' film "The Big Sleep" (1946). Her role in "The Big Sleep" led to bigger parts in films like the musical comedy "Two Guys from Texas" (1948), which was Malone's first lead role. Malone left Warner Bros. in the late 1940s to become a freelance film actor in Hollywood. She continued nabbing a multitude of roles throughout the 1950s, including "Torpedo Alley" (1952), "Scared Stiff" (1953), and "The Fast and the Furious" (1955), the latter of which was also the first film produced by the legendary producer Roger Corman. Then in 1956 Malone appeared in a supporting role alongside Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall in the Douglas Sirk melodrama "Written on the Wind." The film earned Malone her first and only Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Malone continued acting in films throughout the remainder of the 1950s and early 1960s, but in 1964 she gained renewed attention for her role as Constance Mackenzie on the prime time soap opera "Peyton Place" (ABC, 1964-69). Her role on "Peyton Place" ended in 1968 and Malone spent the next twenty-plus years of her acting career appearing in TV shows, made-for-TV movies, and little seen films. She appeared in only a handful of roles throughout the 1980s, with her last on-screen part being in 1992's "Basic Instinct." Malone spent the remaining years of her life in suburban Dallas, the same place she grew up. She died peacefully at a Dallas nursing facility on January 19, 2018. She was 93.


Enjoy!




6:00 AM -- SADDLE LEGION (1952)
A cattle inspector runs a rustling ring on the side.
Dir: Lesley Selander
Cast: Tim Holt, Dorothy Malone, Robert Livingston
BW-61 mins, CC,

Filmed in part at the Garner Ranch in Mountain Center, California, and the RKO Encino Ranch in Encino.


7:15 AM -- SINCERELY YOURS (1955)
Hearing loss creates professional and romantic crises for a concert pianist.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Liberace, Joanne Dru, Dorothy Malone
C-115 mins, CC,

Liberace made this as the first of a two-picture deal he had with Warner Bros. It did so poorly that Warners paid off the pianist rather than make a second film featuring him.


9:30 AM -- ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON (1948)
A dentist in turn-of-the-century New York thinks he may have married the wrong girl.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, Don DeFore
C-91 mins, CC,

Previously filmed as One Sunday Afternoon (1933) with Gary Cooper and Fay Wray, and as The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland.


11:15 AM -- TWO GUYS FROM TEXAS (1948)
Two vaudevillians on the run from crooks try to pass themselves off as cowboys.
Dir: David Butler
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Dorothy Malone
C-86 mins, CC,

Thanks to director Friz Freleng, this was the first feature film appearance of Warners' most famous cartoon character, Bugs Bunny.


12:47 PM -- CURIOUS CONTESTS (1950)
This short film presents a diaper derby, a fireman's ball, and a basket race.
BW-8 mins,


1:00 PM -- THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (1954)
A wrongly convicted man takes a young woman hostage while fighting to clear his name.
Dir: Edwards Sampson
Cast: John Ireland, Dorothy Malone, Bruce Carlisle
BW-74 mins, CC,

The title rights, not the story rights, to this film were purchased so that the title could be used on The Fast and the Furious (2001), another film about racing.


2:16 PM -- THE TERRIBLE TRUTH (1951)
A juvenile court judge investigates the tragedy of marijuana addiction in this short film.
C-10 mins,


2:30 PM -- CONVICTED (1950)
A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.
Dir: Henry Levin
Cast: Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Millard Mitchell
BW-91 mins, CC,

John Ireland was suspended by Columbia for refusing to work on Convicted. He subsequently went to court and won his case, which resulted in his being allowed to buy himself out of his Columbia contract.


4:06 PM -- FRONTIER DAYS (1945)
In this short film, a sheriff and a U.S. marshal bring law and order to a frontier community terrorized by a gang and Native Americans. Vitaphone Release 1375A.
Dir: Jack Scholl
Cast: Fred Kelsey, Rory Mallinson, Trevor Bardette
C-17 mins,


4:30 PM -- TALL MAN RIDING (1955)
A man returns to wreak vengeance against a cattle baron and claim the land that is rightfully his.
Dir: Lesley Selander
Cast: Randolph Scott, Dorothy Malone, Peggie Castle
C-83 mins, CC,

Dorothy Malone was billed on posters as "That 'Battle Cry' Girl."


6:00 PM -- TENSION AT TABLE ROCK (1956)
When the owner of a stagecoach station is killed, a gunman takes his place.
Dir: Charles Marquis Warren
Cast: Richard Egan, Dorothy Malone, Cameron Mitchell
C-93 mins, CC,

This is an almost textbook western, with many western regulars, like Royal Dano, Dabbs Greer, Dub Taylor and DeForest Kelley. Composer Dimitri Tiomkin also wrote the music for dozens of westerns--most notably High Noon (1952)--and was one of Hollywood's top composers.


7:44 PM -- SENTINELS IN THE AIR (1956)
This short film salutes the U.S. Air Force Reserve and the role they play in the nation's effort to keep the people safe.
Dir: Howard Winner
BW-15 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: DOROTHY MALONE



8:00 PM -- THE TARNISHED ANGELS (1958)
A newsman falls for the wife of a barnstorming pilot whose work he's covering.
Dir: Douglas Sirk
Cast: Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone
BW-91 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

During the location shooting in San Diego of this film, Robert Stack's wife was about to have their first child. While filming the tense scene where Stack propositions his own wife (played by Dorothy Malone), suddenly a plane flew right by the cameras with letters tailing four feet tall proclaiming IT'S A GIRL! Rock Hudson had arranged to have the hospital call immediately when the news came and hired a stunt pilot to tow the message behind the plane. Stack was deeply moved by Hudson's generosity, saying in his autobiography, "It's a moment I've never forgotten. Anybody who tells me that Rock Hudson isn't a first-class gent had better put up his dukes."


9:42 PM -- THE RELAXED WIFE (1957)
A short industrial film that seeks to help working men and their wives deal with life's little problems.
C-13 mins,


10:00 PM -- WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1957)
A young woman marries into a corrupt oil family then falls for her husband's best friend.
Dir: Douglas Sirk
Cast: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack
C-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Dorothy Malone

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Stack, and Best Music, Original Song -- Victor Young (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "Written on the Wind". Victor Young's nomination was posthumous.

Despite Rock Hudson's pleasant camaraderie with everyone on the set and his apparent happiness in his marriage, Dorothy Malone said she found him to be somewhat of a loner who hid his feelings of sadness and insecurity. Nevertheless, she developed a bond with him that helped her through moments of tension on the set. "Rock gave me that sense of security whenever I worked with him."



12:00 AM -- TOO MUCH, TOO SOON (1958)
The daughter of an iconic actor reunites with her father after a ten year estrangement.
Dir: Art Napoleon
Cast: Dorothy Malone, Errol Flynn, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
BW-121 mins, CC,

Warner Brothers purchased the book the film is based on with the intention of starring Carroll Baker (then under contract) in an adaptation. When she declined on the grounds that she did not want to play "a nymphomaniac", they refused to lend her to an outside company to appear in The Devil's Disciple (1959) opposite Sir Laurence Olivier.


2:15 AM -- THE LAST VOYAGE (1960)
Passengers and crew fight to escape a sinking ocean liner.
Dir: Andrew L. Stone
Cast: Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders
C-91 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects -- Augie Lohman

The ship used by the filmmakers was the SS Ile de France, the famous French liner that cruised the Atlantic from 1926-59. She was leased for $4,000 a day. After shooting completed, she was re-floated (having been partially sunk for the film) and towed to the scrap yard. She has a more heroic place in history, however. It was she that played a major role in the rescue of the passengers from the Italian liner Andrea Doria in 1956, after the latter ship collided with the Swedish ship Stockholm and sank off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. She was the first ship to arrive at the scene of the collision and immediately began taking aboard the Andrea Doria's passengers.



4:00 AM -- TIP ON A DEAD JOCKEY (1957)
A grounded flier gets mixed up with smugglers in Madrid.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Dorothy Malone, Gia Scala
BW-99 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Irwin Shaw's story was first optioned for film by Alfred Hitchcock, but he chose to make "The Wrong Man" and "Vertigo" instead.


5:42 AM -- CARNIVAL DAY (1936)
A balloon seller assists with the romance of a singing jockey and a flower girl in this musical short film. Vitaphone Release 7143-7144.
Dir: Ralph Staub
Cast: Rod Bacon, George Reed, Joan Barclay
C-16 mins,


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